BKC Lancing

British Kitesurfing Championships- Lancing

Lancing was the host of the first British Kite Championships (BKC) of this awesome series. Jim from Kiteworld magazine has collaborated with the 3 musketeers (Rou, Alex and Mary) from IKSURF magazine to bring us a UK tour getting loads of brands and riders involved.

Saturday started off with some light winds and even the sun came out to join us whilst we all prepared for a busy weekend. It was amazing to see over 50 competitors entered and big brands come to support and offer demos throughout the day.

First off was the juniors’ category who did a great job with the lighter winds, still getting some big air, powered raleys and stylish grabbed tricks. Next up was the ladies ams and as there was only 3 women entered, they completed 3 heats and best of three won. The girls must’ve been exhausted riding back to back but that still didn’t stop them, even with Kate Ross losing her kite in the first heat!

Next up, pro women. I always start to feel a little nervous before competing no matter how much I tell myself it’s just another kite session. The wind quickly picked up and I was soon overpowered on my 9m Cabrinha Chaos. My first heat didn’t go to plan with a lot of my tricks being crashed which meant Holly sailed through to round 3. Next heat with Sukie and Danni, I decided to change down to my 7m Chaos. I was now underpowered, typical! We were all struggling with the drop in wind but all still managed to pull some tricks out the bag. Danni won our heat and joined Rosanna and Holly in the final. The amateur men’s heats followed, full of powered unhooked tricks, rotations, grabs and big air.

Pro men’s was up! Always exciting to watch with Lewis Crathern competing this year too! They did a great job of putting on a show with the beach full of spectators! However later on the wind started to drop off and with a strong forecast for Sunday morning, they decided to postphone until the morning. 8pm we all gathered at the local for a “couple of bevies” and for the prize giving for the finished categories. There was cash and loads of prizes kindly donated by the brands for all of the winners! Many didn’t stay out too late with the knowledge of competition in the morning!

Sunday morning greeted us with wind, lots of wind and rain! The shore break was huge and the competitors did an awesome job of still shredding even though I probably wouldn’t have made it out through the shore break! Oli Sweeney was still throwing huge and stylish handle passes whilst Kev threw tricks off the chop and rode blind upwind! It was pretty cold and rainy so hats off to all the competitors for still shredding in the tricky conditions!

It was an incredibly fun competition and even though I didn’t land the tricks I wanted to and do as well as I hoped, I’m now going to go away and practice riding heats, planning my tricks and hopefully learn some new tricks too! Sometimes competitions don’t go the way you hoped but it’s always a beneficial experience, it opens your eyes to what you need to work on and it’s a great chance to catch up with friends! A huge thank you to all the judges who got pretty sunburnt from sitting out all day, beach marshals, photographers, brands and especially Rou and Jim who made this awesome event happen! Thank you and I can’t wait for the next!